A wireless communication environment may include a wide range of electronic devices such as smart phones, laptop computers, tablets, digital media players, audio/visual equipment such as televisions and stereos, set-top boxes, and game consoles. The electronic devices may be communicatively coupled with each other and/or with a wide area network access point by way of a wireless local area network, a personal area network, or a piconet. One or more of the electronic devices may be communicatively coupled with one or more peripheral devices by way of wireless communication links. For example, the peripheral device may be a remote control apparatus operable to receive a user input, responsive to which the peripheral device may send commands to a television or set-top box. As another example, the peripheral device may be a wireless mouse or keyboard communicatively coupled with a personal computer. Consumers generally expect such peripheral devices to be autonomously powered by batteries that seldom require recharge or replacement, and to be available for instant use (i.e., be configured to operate, responsive to a user input with imperceptible latency). Meeting such consumer expectations with a peripheral device having a small form factor may be challenging, particularly where the peripheral device is required to provide sophisticated communication and processing functionalities.